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CCA Wattis Institute Presents *Apocalypse Now: The Theater of War*

Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007, by Brenda Tucker

The CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts will present the exhibition Apocalypse Now: The Theater of War from November 30, 2007, through January 26, 2008, in the lower-level Logan Galleries on the San Francisco campus of California College of the Arts. The show is inspired by the Bay Area's history of antiwar activism and by Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 epic film of the same name. It is cocurated by Wattis Institute Director Jens Hoffmann and the artists Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla. Apocalypse Now is free and open to the public, with an opening reception on Thursday, November 29, from 6–8 p.m.

Apocalypse Now responds to wars around the globe, both past and present, but it also addresses how the language and iconography of war are embedded in everyday life and our broader social consciousness. The show includes works by a number of international contemporary artists as well as a diverse range of cultural artifacts, not all of which are directly related to war per se, but which do, within the exhibition environment, function as tools or even weapons of attack. Many of the works are deliberately conceived to block, resist, and repel the audience.

Apocalypse Now rejects the ordinary "rules of engagement" of exhibition making in which the audience is seduced by the artworks, gently guided by the gallery architecture, and assisted by interpretive material. The show is at war with the audience and also at war with itself, examining how struggle, conflict, and resistance can be built into each element of an installation. The exhibition design is inspired by bunker architecture and camouflage. But, importantly, it reverses the concept of camouflage: The dreadfulness and disgust associated with war, which are not usually openly discussed, are decamouflaged. We see the unpalatable side of humanity, and scenes and situations that repel us, while examining how exhibitions can test not only visual but also personal boundaries.

Lead sponsorship for Apocalypse Now: The Theater of War is provided by the American Center Foundation.

Founding support for CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts programs has been provided by Phyllis C. Wattis and Judy and Bill Timken. Generous support provided by the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, Grants for the Arts / San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, Ann Hatch and Paul Discoe, and the CCA Curator's Forum.

Apocalypse Now is presented concurrently with Allora and Calzadilla's solo exhibition Sediments, Sentiments (Figures of Speech) at the San Francisco Art Institute, Walter and McBean Galleries, on view October 19 through December 15, 2007.

Participating Artists
Antonin Artaud, Max Beckmann, Margaret Bourke-White, Mathew Brady, Jacques Callot, Bruce Conner, Leonardo da Vinci, Otto Dix, Ernst Friedrich, Francisco de Goya, George Grosz, John Heartfield, Ernst Jünger, Jon Kessler, Kí¤the Kollwitz, Lewis Milestone, Bruce Nauman, Pino Pascali, Pablo Picasso, Alain Resnais, Alexander Rodchenko, Martha Rosler, Luigi Russolo, Kurt Schwitters, Richard Serra, and Mark Twain

The exhibition also includes artifacts, records, films, artworks, and reproductions documenting, remembering, and presenting wars both historical and contemporary.

About Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla
The politically engaged contemporary artists Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla have worked together since 1995. They offer disarmingly playful critiques of politically, culturally, and economically invested sites, revealing the effects of globalization on a local and personal level. They produce sculpture, photography, installations, and participatory pieces, and they frequently incorporate diverse groups and interests into their projects. In Minneapolis, for instance, they organized a free-radio project with a group of teenagers in response to the media-saturated 2004 presidential election. And in Chalk (1998–2002), a series of works presented in different cities, they gave oversize pieces of chalk to passersby to inscribe their thoughts on nearby sidewalks and streets (producing an incendiary effect in Lima, and a satirical one at a Democratic convention in Boston).

Allora was born in 1974 in Philadelphia, and Calzadilla was born in 1971 in Havana. They currently live in San Juan, Puerto Rico. They have exhibited widely, with recent solo presentations at the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent (2006), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2006), the Dallas Museum of Art (2006), and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2004). Their works have been included in the Whitney Biennial, New York (2006), the Busan Biennial, Korea (2006), the First Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art (2006), and the 51st Venice Biennale (2005). In 2005 Allora and Calzadilla were shortlisted for the Guggenheim Museum's Hugo Boss Prize.

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